NOT . . . TRIGGER HAPPY

Posted on November 26, 2009 by PAUL MILLER

. . . THANK YOU . . .In his slow decision-making, Obama goes with head, not gut. . . President Obama meets with members of his administration in the Situation Room. The president has been criticized for taking a long time to decide on a strategy for the war in Afghanistan. (Pete Souza/the White House Via Associated Press) …By Joel Achenbach …Washington Post Staff Writer …Wednesday, November 25, 2009

President George W. Bush once boasted, “I’m not a textbook player, I’m a gut player.” The new tenant of the Oval Office takes a strikingly different approach. President Obama is almost defiantly deliberative, methodical and measured, even when critics accuse him of dithering. When describing his executive style, he goes into Spock mode, saying, “You’ve got to make decisions based on information and not emotions.”

Obama’s handling of the Afghanistan conundrum has been a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory.

The strategic review began in September. Again and again, the war council convened in the Situation Room. The president mulled an array of unappealing options. Next week, finally, he will tell the American public the outcome of all this strategizing.
“He’s establishing his decision-making process as being almost diametrically the opposite of the previous administration,” says Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel who served as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s chief of staff. Wilkerson, who teaches national security decision-making at George Washington University, says the Bush-Cheney style was “cowboy-like, typical Texas, typical Wyoming, and extremely secretive.”

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . On this THANKSGIVING DAY 2009 … I stand to give thanks that our current executive leadership is not cut from the Bush/Cheney mold of … “shoot first and ask questions later” … and that President Obama is capable of taking whatever heat we choose to heap on him for being contemplative as opposed to “trigger happy” …

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …

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Warrantless drug testing/screening

Posted on November 26, 2009 by PAUL MILLER


DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . You have no idea how reassuring it is that Arizona proposes to institute … reasonable cause … drug testing/screening before welfare recipients can receive assistance.

Knowing that some nameless, faceless, bureaucrat will unilaterally, arbitrarily and most likely capriciously determine what constitutes … reasonable cause … triggering drug screening of welfare recipients leaves me with the same level of trust I have knowing that TSA at our airports are now engaged in covert screening of the emotions of passengers…?

“We” are walking a precariously slippery slope … today it’s JUST those someone determines without full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE & TRANSPARENCY is guilty … want to guess what tomorrow brings…?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …

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PUBLIC HEALTH OPTION

Posted on November 26, 2009 by PAUL MILLER

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DO NOT WAIT FOR LEADERS

Posted on November 24, 2009 by PAUL MILLER

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FLIPPED OFF

Posted on November 22, 2009 by PAUL MILLER


DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . .
You know you when you really think about it you have to laugh because as you and I yell, scream, pull our hair, bite our nails, chew on erasers, twiddle our thumbs the 535 elected members of Congre$$ and the thousands of health insurance industry lobbyist$ are enjoying a good laugh at our expen$e.

Think about it … right now, this very minute every elected US Congressman and US Senator is enjoying … 100% fully funded … cradle to grave … taxpayer funded … public financed … public administered HEALTH CARE … 24/7/365 … and they enjoy this incredibly effective and efficient delivery system WITHOUT the requirement of more than 2,000 pages of governmental rule, regulations, provisions, stipulations, and meaningless bullshit.

BUT … you and I … are DENIED this same coverage … get over it, we’re nothing more than “dunces” deserving to be flipped-off as all we need to do is follow the money … but we’re too damn lazy to even to that.

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …

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INDIFFERENCE TO AWARENESS

Posted on November 22, 2009 by PAUL MILLER

PERSPECTIVE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION . . .

How does one become … aware … ?

A path leading to awareness viewed through today’s lens of instant-gratification can appear arduous, time consuming requiring constant individual vigilance. And there is credibility in that perspective.

There is I think a question one needs to consider before choosing to proceed and embark on a path seeking … awareness. Am I willing to give up my own indifference…? Why, you ask…? Left un-asked … indifference … clings to us like an impenetrable layer of skin preventing anything new, different, altering, novel or original from either entering. And a path towards awareness requires and demands we voluntarily choose to be penetrated even challenged.

Today in America, it is our collective … indifference … which permits our continuous pollution to our singular-shared-biosphere, our air, our water and our food crops. Moreover our indifference permits our tolerating substantive differences in the delivery of health and health care to favored and selective segments of our population at the expense of all others.

Indifference blinds us to the constrictive working conditions imposed by artificial-people (corporation$) on those laboring to produce the wealth by which these same corporation$ abusively restrict the free and impartial flow of full, open, honest, timely disclosure and transparency of all information.

Wise minds throughout the ages spoke of the price a society pays when it chooses to endorse … indifference …. The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. … Plato

First they came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me. … Martin Niemöller

As Confuscious noted … “the journey of thousand miles begins with the first step” … so too does that journey seeking awareness …begin by our choice to eliminate our indifference to the way things actually are.

Respectfully submitted,

“The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.” — Bess Myerson

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WE WANT FULL DISCLOSURE

Posted on November 20, 2009 by PAUL MILLER


http://www.yumasun.com/news/pilot-54082-plant-run.html ... Desalting plant pilot run scheduled for May … A pilot run of the Yuma Desalting Plant will take place in May. The run, which will be conducted in collaboration with three water agencies from Arizona, California and Nevada, has been under consideration for some time to test the idle plant’s capabilities.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE . . . All “desal” plants in the process of converting salty water to potable (drinking) conditions produce prodigious amounts of salt. Question … where is this reject salt being discharged …? And under what conditions …?

“We” are demanding a full, open, honest, timely DISCLOSURE on all the water parameters such as beginning water quality in terms of salt, pH, temperature, chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and resulting quality after going through the “desal” process…?

Or is this information proprietary (ha, ha) and our government is refusing to release it …?

… I invite “us” to consider not to shame, blame or criticize but rather simply ask … what would it look like when it’s fixed … and own that ONLY we have the power to bring about the change needed to fix it …

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